Whooping Crane
During the week of 3 January 2011, WALB-TV in Albany, GA ran a video news segment on the shooting murder of 3 endangered Whooping Cranes in Calhoun County, GA. WALB-TV interviewed me and included several of my Whooping Crane photos in the news clip. Another TV station, Fox 31 in Albany, also used several of my Whooper photos. Other photos in this 15 photo series on flickr were featured in publications by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Atlanta Audubon Society, and others.
3rd of 15 in Series | Undisclosed Location, Georgia, USA | 1 December 2010
Whooping Crane, left to right 3 - 07 (Male) and 38 - 08 (Female).
This is one of the rarest birds in North America. In the 1940s, there were less than 20 individuals on the planet. Today, there are less than 400 in the wild and less than 200 in captivity. The Whooping Cranes pictured in this series are free, and are 4 of the 107 individuals in the wild in Eastern North America.
The 2 color bands (left leg) denote either 2007 (R/G) or 2008 (R/W).
The 3 color bands (right leg), in combination with year bands, denote their individual identity:
2007 (R/G)
[RGW, 3-07, Male]
[GRW, 7-07, Male]
[WGW, 39-07, Female]
2008 (R/W)
[RWG, 38-08 , Female]
During the week of 3 January 2011, WALB-TV in Albany, GA ran a video news segment on the shooting murder of 3 endangered Whooping Cranes in Calhoun County, GA. WALB-TV interviewed me and included several of my Whooping Crane photos in the news clip. Another TV station, Fox 31 in Albany, also used several of my Whooper photos. Other photos in this 15 photo series on flickr were featured in publications by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Atlanta Audubon Society, and others.
The Cranes were in a pasture/swamp, on private property, on the other side of a fence and hedge-row. I remained in the same spot, on my side of the fence/hedge, on the shoulder of a road, for a limited period of time. I used a heavy, long telephoto lens mounted on a heavy stationary tripod. I enlarged and cropped the photos significantly.